So just what was worse? Slavery or the Holocaust?

That’s precisely the question educators warn us that we should never ask. But it keeps coming up amongst the general public when blacks and Jews convene publicly to talk about their issues.

I yet again saw the animosity to which this inquiry can give rise when, on Monday night, I and about 100 other people gathered at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Central Library to hear Dr. Hubert G. Locke (who happens to be an African American) give a lecture on the responsibility of black churches after the Holocaust.

It was hard to miss the four-foot high promotional posters adorning the library’s large front windows in recent weeks. Thus, the audience was a mix of black and white, young and old, Christians, Jews and a few Muslims (one who literally shouted about the Palestinians and “today’s holocaust). There were community leaders, thanks to an array of co-sponsorships, and folks likely just looking to hear something different.

Dr. Locke—dean of the Evan School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle, and a longtime member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust – warned that his words may be controversial. What an understatement. Indeed, an hour later it’s likely that everyone present was upset about something that had been said (which the hisses, shouts and boos certainly revealed).

The comments of one African American woman stood out for me. “We should put the issue of [slavery] reparation up front and then I can cry about the Jewish Holocaust,” she said.

She was not angry; she sounded sincere. She was simply putting her communal concerns first. We Jews do that all the time and for understandable reasons.

But it begs conversation on how blacks and Jews indeed do compare the Holocaust and slavery. The standard response is “One should not compare suffering.” Clearly for some that does not go far enough. How Shoah shapes the modern psyche of Jews and how slavery molds that of African Americans is deep and profound. Indeed, they form a carefully threaded string that weaves through the complicated, diverse sub-communities within those two far from monolithic groupings.

It also presents a challenge that should be met head on and not brushed aside as a conversation that won’t get us anywhere. After all, if every difficult moment is a teachable one – and I believe it is – rejecting this opportunity will lead to deeper frustration, which paves the road to either indifference or hatred.

(Addendum: There was at least some unity present – the lead co-sponsorship of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, with the support of the Associated Black Charities, the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Open Society Institute-Baltimore. One hopes they join forces yet again to help us explore such important topics – regardless of the results.)